Must-know tips to help get your email and website seen

Serving up hot, delicious webpage headlines and email subject lines is what we all want. You have something important to say, and if only your prospective buyer would take the next step -- they’d find it worth their time. Then you just might make a sale.

You need an attention-getting headline for your audience to stop thinking of their next bowling league matchup or how they can make the boss happy. Or maybe to focus on a big problem they’re having that your business can solve.

But what exactly is it that gets people to actually open an email, scroll down beyond the headline on your website, or read a news release?

There are sound, practical actions you can take. From tweaking a landing page for you new product launch to sending your next email newsletter, here are a few tips for crafting subject lines and headlines that people will click.

The personal touch. Our names are like music to our ears. Most email service platforms can be set up to add a field to the subject line with the first name of the recipient. This is a powerful attention getter making people feel it’s a custom message just for them. But you can’t do this in a webpage headline. Plus, you don’t want to over do it if you send out lots of emails. The next best way to give the readers a personalized experience is to use “you”. By the way, the personalization principle applies to the sender of an email -- instead of your company’s name, have it come from a person, or both, i.e. “From: Your Name, [Your Business Name].”

Ethical persuasion. Psychological selling techniques are powerful. Urgency and scarcity are high on the list. These work as long as the headline is true and not over-hyped. Otherwise buyers will tend to interpret such claims as nothing more than a scam sales tactic. Yet, study after study reveals that us humans fear loss more than gain. So as long as it’s a situation that honestly calls for immediate action such as an approaching deadline, it’s fine to use. The message of, "You will clearly benefit from opening this email or reading more of our webpage" will be received. For instance, offering a coupon for a big fat discount is good, but doing this with an expiration date included is better. This idea can be used in many different ways. Have fun and be creative: “Uh-oh, your subscription is expiring” and “Larry, Earn triple points today only” or for a webpage landing headline, “A new product you won’t pass on, get it before it’s gone.”

Fresh relevance. There’s a reason someone landed on your email list or website -- something of interest resonated with them. This goes back to the notion of targeting your specific audience and knowing what they want. And what they want now. This carries over to headlines and subject lines. Pretty obvious, yet we all manage to drift off topic from time to time. After all you may have an amazing offer, but if you’re talking to someone who doesn’t care because they don’t need it -- or just as bad, needed it last year -- then you’ll never pique your audience's curiosity to read on. Lay your headlines out strategically, for you and your buyer by featuring trending, relevant and timely topics in your subject lines.

While your buyer can’t learn everything about the post from one simple line, it is indisputably very important. A well thought-out headline or email subject line will either pull a reader in or keep them scrolling. That’s the action you want.

You don’t need to take a course or hire an expensive content writer to create eye-catching headlines. Just practice using some of the above techniques and make it important for the reader. Oh, and have fun while offering tons of value!

Ron Stein is founder of More Customers Academy, helping business leaders build strategic messaging and positioning that cuts through the competitive noise to grow revenue. Ron has developed his own highly successful 5-step Stand Out & Sell More approach to winning new customers as a result of his twenty-five years of business development, marketing, and selling experiences. He works with a range of businesses, from startups to large corporations across industries including technology and healthcare, manufacturing, and financial services and banking. Ron conducts workshops, leads company meetings, offers keynote talks, and consults. He can be reached at 727-398-1855 or by email.

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